Monday, May 9, 2016

Week 19 - Flowers and Graduations

It was a really nice week that started with some really,
really good news and was punctuated with gorgeous spring weather and lots of
flower shopping. Lots.

The week started with Anne’s call to United. They had
changed the first leg of our trip to Scotland by a few minutes, which meant
that we could rebook without fees. Despite the fact that it only added 5
minutes to our newly shortened layover at O’Hare, they let us rebook to the
princess flight. So now instead of Omaha > Chicago > Shannon >
Edinburgh, which was our only choice so Anne could use her miles but left me
dreading the final leg, which we’d be doing while exhausted and would make us
miss our airport transfer that included a tour of Edinburgh, we were booked
Omaha > Chicago > Edinburgh. Yay! Not only was a excited when I heard but
the relief of not facing that awful itinerary seems to have opened the flood
gates and pre-trip excitement is now in full swing. Just 6 more weeks to wait.

On Tuesday I moved cubies back to my original one. It was
just one cubie away and Dawn’s cubie was pretty bare bones so the actual move
didn’t take long. I’m happy to be back with the better airflow and closer to
the door so hopefully I’ll hear people come in before they pop around my wall
and scare the piss out of me. I also have a direct sightline to Cindy. And
while I didn’t got through everything, I did slog through a big stack of paper
later in the week so made some progress there.

I had a lovely Skype date with Eileen on Thursday night then
did a long overdue neatization of my house, which meant I would be going into
the weekend with my house already picked up. I’d have laundry and dishes to do
but otherwise would be free for something big. I had graduation parties both
Saturday and Sunday nights so was hoping for productive days.

There was much purchasing of flowers this week, continuing a
recent trend. On Thursday I went to one of my favorite local greenhouses –
Urban Trails. I always find gorgeous heucheras (coral bells – my fave
perennial) there and was hoping to replace one I’d bought 2 years ago but
planted in the wrong spot so it didn’t live. The owner said he hadn’t grown
that variety but I was thrilled to find just one and another I just had to
have. Not to repeat my prior bad spot selection, I spent Saturday afternoon
pulling self-seeded phlox out of my deck bed and replacing them with 3 new
heucheras and a perennial geranium I’d bought at Spring Affair. But could I
waste those phlox? Nope. So I dug a new bed around the corner of the deck and
planted 3 big phlox there. Now my deck is completely surrounded with flowers.
Nice.

I made my favorite rhubarb dessert (first rhubarb of the
season) to take to Jessica’s party Saturday night and it was a big hit. (I've included the recipee below in case you want to try it. The mini marshmallows are the secret
ingredient.) Jessica is our water zumba instructor who just got her PhD and is headed to St. Lawrence U in upstate New York to be a professor. I had fun making her socks that have both St. L's colors and UNL's. She'll look all legit above the shoe but be all husker inside. She seemed to like them and they were a fun knit, which I finished just hours before her party. You know me - I'm good with a deadline.

So, nice week, right? I could have been more productive on Sunday but did manage to get my laundry done and did a tiny bit of gardening so the rain coming late Sunday would water it all in. But I got sucked into streaming Catastrophe, which is so funny but also loaded with sex scenes (you've been warned!) It totally cut into my Sunday afternoon but I was busy enough Saturday to assuage my guilt. Because that's the other thing I'm good with - self-imposed guilt trips. But who cares. I've got a real trip coming up that I'm pretty excited about. : )